Every Race, Tribe, Nation, and Language

Every Race, Tribe, Nation, and Language

Revelation 7:9-17; Galatians 3:28[1]

Robert Frost is one of my favorite poets. Many of us may know if him by his poem “The Road Not Taken.” One of his poems called “Mending Wall” questions the validity of the boundaries in this world. In the poem, Frost puts it this way: “Before I built a wall I’d ask to know what I was walling in or walling out, And to whom I was like to give offence. Something there is that doesn’t love a wall, that wants it down.”[2] Now, what we have to understand is that in Frost’s New England stone “walls” were the “fences” between properties. The poem is about the annual ritual that he and his neighbor performed—walking the wall to replace stones that have fallen off.

In the poem, the “neighbor” insists on holding firmly to the notion handed down to him that “Good fences make good neighbors.” But Frost saw the very forces of nature working against the continued existence of stone fences. Whether it was the ground swelling and contracting, toppling the stones, or it was the action of ice freezing and breaking up the stones, Frost saw the very elements themselves as conspiring to bring down the walls and fences that conventional wisdom insists “make good neighbors.” From Frost’s perspective, God has built into nature itself the intention to continually uproot and overturn walls and fences. But, of course, Frost’s poem was about more than just physical walls. He was talking about all the boundaries and divisions we feel compelled to uphold.

That’s one the points in the vision of the great multitude in Revelation. In that vast throng of people worshipping the one on the throne and the Lamb, all the boundaries and lines and divisions that separate people from one another are erased. Of course, that vision is contrary to the way of the world. In fact, it was contrary to the way of the world from the time it was written down. The way of the world says that only members are allowed. The way of the world says you must wear shoes and a shirt to receive service. The way of the world insists that differences in color and culture constitute absolute boundaries that must be upheld at all cost. This world wants clear boundaries and fences—and laws that reinforce them!

In the Kingdom of God, however, the standard operating procedure is “neither Jew nor Greek, neither male nor female, neither slave nor free” (Gal 3:28). To expand on that statement today, we would have to say that the way of the Kingdom of God is neither white nor black nor brown nor yellow nor red; neither rich nor poor, neither employed nor unemployed, neither middle class nor unhoused; neither native born citizen, nor refugee, nor immigrant, “legal” or otherwise. All are included in God’s vision of new life for the human family. Like Frost’s notion of nature itself conspiring to bring down the walls in our world, God’s Kingdom is designed so that nothing will be left that can possibly divide us!

The vision of the great multitude in Revelation is a startling one. I think the majority of us in mainline protestant churches may have read this passage as if the crowd were composed only of white, anglo-saxon, protestant Christian, middle- to upper-class voting citizens of the USA! In other words, people who look just like us. But the seer of Revelation says that this multitude comes from “every race, tribe, nation, and language” (Rev. 7:9 CEV). In the First-Century world, that was a description of just about every distinction that could possibly divide the human family. It’s an understatement to say that in our day we’ve added to that list! But the point of the vision is that the “great multitude” cuts across all the ways in which we like to divide humanity to “protect” ourselves from “others” who are different from us.

After almost fifty years of studying the Bible, it’s my considered opinion that this vision of the kingdom of God including all people is the focus of the biblical message. Many have tried to frame the “great multitude” in Revelation as a vast throng of Christians from every people group. But I would insist that way of thinking is foreign to the Bible. From start to finish, the Bible tells us about God’s purpose to restore the whole human family, no exceptions. At the start of that great work, Abraham hears the promise that “in you all the families of the earth will be blessed” (Gen. 12:3).[3] And the end of God’s project, depicted by the vision of the vast and diverse crowd around the throne in the book of Revelation, gives us an actual image of what that could look like: the whole human family gathered around the throne as “servants of God” (Rev. 7:3)![4]

This vision lies at the heart of the call in the book of Revelation to follow the way of the Lamb who was slain. But Revelation also makes it clear that all who follow that way expose themselves to danger. It’s dangerous to follow a man who was executed for turning the world upside down. It’s dangerous to hold faithfully to the testimony of the Lamb who was slain. It's dangerous to follow the one who wins the victory not by force but by giving himself over to death. And it’s dangerous to choose to follow the way that seeks to erase all the “differences” we use to divide the human family. That’s what the “Lamb who was slain” calls us to do.

We live in a time when it feels like the “powers that be” are obsessed with reinforcing the way of the world and all its divisions. When we embrace people from every race, tribe, nation, and language—as well as all the other “groups” into which we divide the human family, we must expect opposition, hostility, and perhaps even violence. But I would say that it makes a difference every time one of us chooses to follow the radically inclusive way of the Lamb. I would say every time one of us chooses to follow this way, we are continuing the process of “turning the world upside down” that Jesus began. And we can take comfort from the assurance that the Lamb who was slain will one day be revealed as the one who has won the victory! On that day, the biblical vision of God’s Kingdom will be fulfilled, where all the walls and fences and boundaries and divisions are torn down. In the meantime, the assurance is that when we choose to cross a boundary to show God’s love to any who are excluded as “different,” we are making a contribution to that final victory.[5]

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[1] © 2025 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 5/11/2025 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

[2] Robert Frost, “Mending Wall,” from North of Boston.

[3] Cf. Richard Bauckham, “The List of the Tribes in Revelation 7, Again,” Journal for the Study of the New Testament 42 (1991):99-115; cf. 103, where he emphasizes the vision of the innumerable multitude as a fulfillment of the promise to Abraham and his descendants.

[4] Cf. Balmer H. Kelly, “Revelation 7:9-17,” Interpretation 40 (July, 1986): 294, where he says this passage presents “an unalloyed ‘gospel,’ a seeing and hearing of the final justification of Christian hope.”

[5] Cf. Jürgen Moltmann, The Church in the Power of the Spirit, 293: since the Christian community is “the sign, the instrument, and the breaking-in” of Christ’s reign and therefore of the new creation, it “is therefore not an exclusive community of the saved, but the initial and inclusive materialization of the world freed by the risen Christ.”

Jesus is Lord!

 Jesus Is Lord!

Revelation 1:4-18[1]

If anyone happened to pay attention to the bulletin or the PowerPoint and noticed that today is designated “Christ the King” Sunday, I’m not sure that would mean much. The only “royalty” we pay much attention to these days is the British royal family. But they’re really not much more than “cultural icons” as Wikipedia calls them. They’re known for their wealth and celebrity. They function as figureheads with no real authority or power to do much of anything. The best of them use their position to advocate for good causes; the others are infamous for their family drama. If that’s our image of what it means to be a “King,” it’s no wonder observing this day as “Christ the King” Sunday gets passed over without much notice.

Nevertheless, the image of God reigning over all things as “King” is one that is central to the Bible, as our Psalm lesson for today reminds us. It is an affirmation that, regardless of who may hold power in this world, God is the one who ultimately determines the outcomes in the end. That, too, may be a problem for us. We see a lot of outcomes in this world that seem to be contrary to God’s ways. It may be all too easy to assume that God’s power isn’t what it’s cracked up to be, or perhaps God may not be paying attention, or maybe he’s just taking a long nap. Meanwhile, the world continues to go on as it always has. The rich get richer and might makes right.

Our lesson from the book of Revelation for today addresses this question. In the first-century world, Christians had to face this challenge in a similar way that we do. The ultimate power in their day was the Roman Empire, and any time anyone questioned that power, they were met with brutal violence. The presence of vast and powerful Roman armies throughout the world of that day constantly reminded people where “true” power was. And Roman Governors like Pontius Pilate didn’t hesitate to unleash the soldiers on unarmed crowds of men, women, and children to keep a firm grip on their power. The problem for believers in that day was that they confessed their faith that “Jesus is Lord” in their worship! And yet, all around them were images that contradicted that faith. 

I believe the book of Revelation was written to remind those Christians that at the heart of their faith was a very different vision of what life is about. It’s a vision of the one who sits on the throne, who bends everything that happens, both evil and good, toward his purposes. To convey this image, our lesson speaks of God as “the Alpha and the Omega,” the one “who is and who always was and who is still to come,” and “the Almighty” (Rev. 1:8). This description of God is full of implications, but essentially, it’s a reminder that God is the one who sits on the throne of the universe, and it is his rule that will ultimately define all things and everyone in the end. It’s a reminder that “Our God is an awesome God; he reigns from heaven above; with wisdom, power, and love; our God is an awesome God.”[2] That remains true regardless of what we see or who claims to hold power here and now.

The Book of Revelation also speaks of the one who stands at God’s right hand: “Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead” (Rev. 1:5). Again, there’s a whole theology about Jesus packed into that phrase, and it takes the rest of Revelation to explain. One of the most important images of Jesus in the Book of Revelation is that he is the lamb who was slain and who has triumphed through his death. As in our day, so also in that day, “triumphing through death” didn’t make much sense. And it still doesn’t. Sacrificing one’s life the way Jesus did would seem to be weakness, not power. But the Scripture contradicts that point of view by proclaiming that, because of his death and resurrection, Jesus is “the ruler of the kings of the earth” (Rev. 1:5). All the kings of the earth! Because of his death and resurrection, he alone has the right to rule over all the so-called “powers” of this world. And he rules over the “kingdom of this world,” and the promise is that “he shall reign forever and ever” (Rev. 11:15) as we know from the familiar oratorio “The Messiah”!

At the heart of the Christian faith is a vision of a reality that directly opposes the visions of power in our present world. God reigns over all things by the power of his love. And Jesus demonstrates that power by working in each of our lives to transform this world into “the kingdom of our Lord” (Rev. 11:15). At the heart of our faith is the conviction that this ultimate reality, God’s reign in and through our lives through Jesus our Lord, is the true reality that defines all of life. This reality, the reign of Jesus Christ as Lord, exposes the falsehood of all the boastful claims of the rich and powerful in our day. And the promise is that one day the reign of Jesus Christ as Lord will overthrow all the false powers in our world and bring true peace, justice, and freedom to everyone!

I guess the question we have to answer is whether this vision is more convincing than what pretends to be true in our world. Things haven’t changed much since the First Century. But the real question we have to address here is where we place our faith. As a recent lesson from the Psalms reminds us, if we place our faith in “mortals,” no matter how powerful they may seem, we find that in them “there is no help” (Ps. 146:3). The Scriptures call us to place our faith in the God who is working right now to establish his kingdom and his justice, peace, and freedom for all peoples everywhere. The Scriptures call us to place our faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord, the one who by his death and resurrection exposed the lie of those who abuse their power in this world. The Scriptures call us to place our faith in our Savior who lives and reigns for all time and unto all eternity. And the Scriptures tell us that one day all creation will worship him as Lord of all.

I think we need that kind of “bigger picture” perspective for our faith in these days.[3] It’s all too easy for us, especially when we go through hard times, to think nobody’s paying any attention, nobody really knows or cares. If God did, why would this happen? But as a good friend reminded me once when I was going through a hard time, nothing that we have to go through in this life escapes God’s notice. God always pays careful attention to each one of our lives, because that’s the nature of who God is. That’s the nature of his love for us. When all we see reinforces the appearance that power in this world comes from force, or intimidation, or wealth, it can be discouraging to those of us trying to live out our Christian faith, hope, and love.

But the Bible gives us a different image of power: it’s the image of the all-powerful God who created all things in the beginning. It’s the image of the God who entered this world in the person of Jesus to redeem us all with the power of love on the cross. It’s the image of the power of new life defeating the power of death on Easter Sunday. It’s the image of Jesus reigning as Lord even now over all the “powers” in our world. It’s the image of that reign fulfilled one day “on earth as it is in heaven.” What that means for us is that one day all the wrongs of this world will be set right, and all that we have to suffer in this world will be turned to good. That’s the nature of Jesus’ reign as Lord. And the promise is that Jesus shall reign as Lord like this “forever and ever”! Amen!

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[1] © 2024 Alan Brehm.  A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 11/24/2024 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman NE.

[2] Rich Mullins, “Our God is an Awesome God,” 1988, BMG Songs, Inc.

[3] Cf. Richard Bauckham, Theology of the Book of Revelation, 31, where he says that the “vision of God’s sovereignty in heaven” is what “makes it possible for John to enlarge his readers’ perspective on their own situation by setting it within the broader context of God’s universal purpose of overcoming all opposition to his rule and establishing his kingdom in the world.” This reign of God is “the true reality which must in the end also prevail on earth.”

Invited

Invited

Revelation 22:12-17, 20-21[1]

Invitations can be tricky. They always involve the problem of balancing whom to include on the list and whom to leave out. There are some events, of course, where everybody is invited, because that’s just the nature of the occasion. There are other events, however, that call for a more thoughtful approach. Whom do you invite to weddings? Whom do you invite to birthday parties? Just the nature of the event and the costs that can be involved limit the number of people you can in all practicality include. Not to mention the obvious and sticky fact that there may be some people you don’t want to invite. Invitations can be tricky.

When it comes to church-related events, obviously everyone is by definition invited. But I’m afraid the reality is that we don’t always look at things with such an open mind. There are some people whom we may not actually want to show up at our “everyone’s invited” events. They are different from us, whether by race, or ethnic origin, or class, or convictions. And if we’re completely honest about it, we wouldn’t feel comfortable if they showed up. All churches have that dynamic going on. Even churches that proclaim themselves completely inclusive would very likely not welcome representatives from Westboro Baptist Church! Invitations are tricky, even in church.

This challenge extends to our lesson from the book of Revelation for today. As the book comes to a close, it extends what seems to be an unlimited invitation: “let everyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift” (Rev. 21:17). It resonates with other passages in Revelation that include all people in God’s work of salvation. In one of the worship scenes sprinkled throughout the book, the victorious witnesses proclaim, “All nations will come and worship before you” (Rev. 15:4). And as we saw recently, God announces that his purpose is to “make all things new” (Rev. 21:5).

The challenge stems from the fact that Revelation also contains images that seem equally sweeping in their condemnation of those who refuse to acknowledge God and the Lamb. In our lesson for today, the Risen Christ declares “Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they will have the right to the tree of life and may enter the city by the gates” (Rev. 22:14). But immediately afterward he also announces ominously that all those who have aligned themselves with the false claims dominating their world would remain outside the New Jerusalem (Rev. 22:15). This also resonates with other passages in Revelation that seem to exclude those who refuse to repent.[2] After declaring that he is making all things new, God proceeds to condemn those who have refused to line up their lives with God’s purposes, either from cowardice, or from an unwillingness to stay true, and who as a result have lived contrary to God’s ways (Rev. 21:8).

I would say that this “tug-of-war” within the book of Revelation is one of the primary reasons why most of us avoid it. The messages that announce God’s purpose to renew and redeem and restore all things and all people bring us encouragement and hope. The messages of widespread judgment and destruction can be frightening and depressing. The question we face is what to do with this tension if we decide we’re not going to simply ignore Revelation.

The traditional answer has been that God would like for all people to be redeemed, but practically speaking it depends on their choice. That would seem the logical answer, except for one problem. Both the declarations of universal salvation and universal judgment are all-encompassing.[3] “All nations” are said to fall down and worship God and also to curse God and fall under his wrath. Both salvation and judgment leave no one out. That doesn’t seem to lend itself to a “logical” solution.

I think, however, that a better approach is to look at this problem from the perspective of what the Book of Revelation was intended to accomplish.[4] It was written to Christians who were faced with difficult choices. They had to choose, sometimes daily, whether to remain true to their faith and pay the consequences, or to compromise with the “powers that be” in order to survive. In that context, Revelation affirms that it is the purpose of God’s grace to restore all things, to set right all that is wrong, and to bring all people to repentance through the witness of the faithful. But it does not enable us to predict the extent to which that purpose will be accomplished.[5] It leaves the question open, and it does so intentionally, because the Book of Revelation was intended to challenge the believers of that day to remain faithful.

Throughout the history of God’s people, we who identify ourselves with Christ have had an unfortunate tendency toward an exclusive mindset. We have tended to believe that “we” are invited, but that those who differ from us may or may not be. At times we’ve actually insisted that the “others” are definitely not invited. But the Bible’s witness to God’s saving purpose in this world will not allow us to take such an easy way out. In fact, the messages of judgment are meant to remind us that we are responsible for our choices and our actions. They challenge us all to reach for ever greater levels of faithful living. But the messages of salvation assure us that in the incomprehensible wisdom of God, no one is by definition excluded from grace.[6] In the infinite mystery of God’s love, everyone who is thirsty may drink from the waters of life. All are invited!

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[1] © 2016 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Dr. Alan Brehm on 5/8/2016 at Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

[2] Cf. Richard Bauckham, The Theology of the Book of Revelation, 102: “The judgments of chapters 16-19 are primarily aimed at destroying the systems—political, economic and religious—which oppose God and his righteousness … . But those who support these systems, …, heeding neither the call to worship God not the threat to those who worship the beast (14:6-11), evidently must perish with the evil systems with which they have identified themselves.”

[3] Cf. Bauckham, Theology of Revelation, 102-3: “John seems content to place indications of the universal conversion of the nations alongside references in equally universal terms to final judgment. But he is not making the kind of statements which need to be logically compatible to be valid. He is painting pictures which each portray a valid aspect of the truth. He depicts the faithful witness of the church leading to the repentance and faith of all the nations. He depicts the world which rejects their witness, unrepentant in its final adherence to the beast, necessarily subject to final judgment. The two pictures correspond to the choice presented to the nations by the proclamations of the angels in 14:6-11. It is no part of the purpose of John’s prophecy to pre-empt this choice in a prediction of the degree of success the witness of the martyrs will have.” Cf. Craig R. Koester, Revelation, 806: “The issue is how to read Revelation’s language. If the vision is taken as a prediction that every human being will be saved in the end, then the warnings of judgment make little sense; conversely, if the visions of judgment are taken as predictions about the complete destruction of kings and nations …, then it is equally hard to explain where the nations and kings in New Jerusalem will come from … .” Cf. also M. Eugene Boring, Revelation, 228.

[4] Cf. Boring, Revelation, 212: “In accord with traditional apocalyptic imagery, books are opened in which the deeds of human beings stand recorded, and people are judged by what they have done. This picture makes human freedom and human responsibility as serious as it can get. What we do matters, and matters ultimately. Yet in this same scene another book is opened, the book of grace, the Lamb’s book of life. Names are written there before the creation of the world, purely as a matter of God’s grace (13:8; 17:8). This picture takes grace with absolute seriousness. … In these two books are pictured the paradox of works and grace, … . We are ultimately responsible for what we do, for it has eternal consequences—we are judged by works. God is ultimately responsible for our salvation, it is his deed that saves, not ours—we are saved by grace.” Cf. similarly, Koester, Revelation, 792: “Judgment is not a purely human affair in which those whose good deeds outnumber their evil deeds are saved and the rest condemned. Neither does God simply choose to redeem some and condemn others. Logically, the tension is awkward, but rhetorically, it shapes the readers’ perspectives in two ways: On the one hand, people are accountable for what they do, so they must not capitulate to evil but resist it. When they fail, the proper response is repentance (22:14). On the other hand, the forces of evil are so pervasive that resistance can seem futile, but the scroll of life gives assurance that salvation is ultimately God’s doing. This gives people reason for hope and perseverance (13:8-10), knowing that the scope of redemption is wide (7:9-17).”

[5] Cf. Boring, Revelation, 228: “John knows the danger of claiming to know too much.” Cf. similarly above, Bauckham, Theology of Revelation, 103. From a slightly different perspective, cf. Koester, Revelation, 806 where he interprets the tension between judgment and salvation in terms of an invitation: “as a vision of the future to which God calls all human beings. Sweeping visions of judgment warn about the devastating consequences of the reign of the beast, and expansive visions of redemption promise a glorious future under the reign of God. Both futures remain open in Revelation; the question is whether people will respond to the message with faith or rejection.”

[6] Cf. Boring, Revelation, 228, where he says that in the end, the tension between judgment and salvation comes down to the faith in “the God whose victory does not depend on ours, who loves us when we do not love him or ourselves, who forgives us when we do not forgive him or ourselves, who believes in us when we do not believe in him or ourselves, who saves us when we do not believe we need saving or are worth saving.” Cf. Koester, Revelation, 806: “The vision of redemption includes all humanity because this is the future to which all humanity is called … .”

All Things New

All Things New

Revelation 21:1-6[1]

It doesn’t take much life experience for us to encounter the phrase, “that’s just the way it is.” Most of us probably heard it first as young children. It was a lesson that we don’t always get our way because “that’s just the way it is.” It’s a lesson that gets reinforced in a variety of ways throughout our lives. There are some things we simply have no control over. If we try to force our own wishes onto those aspects of life, we find ourselves beating our heads against the proverbial wall. So we reach the conclusion that the wise approach is to accept that there’s no point in fighting or resisting, because “that’s just the way it is.”

There can be some wisdom in that approach. There truly are some aspects of our lives over which we have no control, and trying to force them to fit our expectations only winds up being an exercise in futility. And if we keep trying to make these aspects of life conform to our wishes, we learn the definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result! But the problem with this kind of outlook is that if we’re not careful, we can go through our whole lives with a kind of resignation that can lead us to give up altogether. “That’s just the way it is” can become a counsel of despair and hopelessness if we let it dominate our outlook on life.[2]

I think the Christians to whom the Book of Revelation was originally addressed very likely had plenty of opportunities to believe in “that’s just the way it is.” Many of them were slaves who had no chance of a better life. All of them lived in a world where the Roman Empire had the first word, the last word, and all the words in between! Anyone who marched to a different tune could find themselves facing a great deal of opposition, if not outright ostracism. Anyone who actively resisted found themselves brutally crushed under the heels of the Roman legions. There were a lot of reasons for those First-Century believers to think “that’s just the way it is.”

As I’ve been discussing the lessons from Revelation during the season of Easter, I hope it has become apparent that one of the reasons the book was written was to create hope for those who felt hopeless. It was written to help those who could see only more of the same oppression and humiliation at the hands of the “powers that be.”[3] As I’ve said before, at the heart of the book is the message that, despite all appearances to the contrary, God’s rule is the true reality in this world. One of the most important ways Revelation kindles hope is by focusing on God as the Creator of all things. The idea is that the God who is powerful enough to create all the heavens and the earth is powerful enough to change “the way it is.” We can trust the God who created all things in the beginning to make all things new in the end.

And so in our lesson for today, the vision of Revelation begins to come full circle, so to speak. John sees the promise of “a new heaven and a new earth” fulfilled (Rev. 21:1). And in this vision of God’s new creation, there’s no more room for “that’s just the way it is.” In fact, the promise of this passage is that God himself comes to dwell with all his peoples in order to see to it personally that all things are set right.[4] And in this passage, the Scripture describes that process by saying, “he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away” (Rev. 21:4). In other words, God himself comes among the human family to set aside once and for all “the way it is.”[5]

One striking feature of the book of Revelation is that while there are all kinds of voices that speak, God speaks directly only twice. The first time God speaks, he says, “I am the Alpha and the Omega” (Rev. 1:8). We’ve already seen that this is a kind of promise that just as God’s rule had the first word at creation, so will his rule have the last word in the end.[6] In our lesson for today, God speaks directly again, saying “See, I am making all things new” (Rev. 21:5).[7] What may not be readily apparent is that the Greek word translated “all things” was used to refer to the entire cosmos. For that reason, I like the translation of the New Jerusalem Bible: “Look, I am making the whole of creation new.” The idea is that God is fulfilling the promise implied in his first word in Revelation: now he is renewing all creation according to his gracious rule.[8] And in case there’s any doubt about whether he is willing or able to actually make good on that, he adds, “Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

Most of us have had our share of reminders that our world works according to “the way it is.” Some of us have had more than our share. One of the most important reasons for us to hear the message of Revelation is because it does not leave us stuck in a life of “that’s just the way it is.” Revelation is not naïve about the fact that we face certain realities in this world, realities that can be oppressive and humiliating and painful. And there are times when those realities can leave us feeling defeated. But Revelation will not leave us there because it insists that there is more to what God is doing in this world and in our lives. God is working to fulfill promises that will change everything. Promises like “I will wipe away every tear” (cf. Isa. 25:8), and “they will all know me, from the greatest to the least” (cf. Jer. 31:34), and “all will be made alive in Christ,” (1 Cor. 15:22), and “I am making all things new” (Rev. 21:5). Our God is working at nothing less than making all things new!

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[1] ©2016 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Dr. Alan Brehm on 4/24/2016 at Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

[2] Cf. Jürgen Moltmann, In the End—the Beginning, 93, where he says, “without hope faith crumbles, and reason becomes cynical and unreasonable.” cf. also Jürgen Moltmann, Theology of Hope, 22-26, where he discusses at length “The Sin of Despair.”

[3] Cf. Jürgen Moltmann, In the End—The Beginning, 38; he defines “the powers that be” as “the unjust structures in political and economic life which despoil life and disseminate death.”   Cf. also Walter Wink, The Powers that Be, 39, where he calls them “the Domination System.”

[4] Cf. Craig R. Koester, Revelation, 798: “Revelation can use the singular for God’s people collectively (Rev. 18:4), but they come from many peoples (5:9; 7:9); the context pictures the redemption of many nations (21:24, 26; 22:2; cf. Isa 25:6; 56:7; Ps 47:8). “Peoples” is synonymous with “humankind” in 21:3a ….”

[5] This should not be assumed to imply a destruction of the present creation. Cf. Jürgen Moltmann, The Coming of God: Christian Eschatology, 265: “the new creation presupposes the old one; it is the new creation of all things. ‘Behold, I make all things new’ (21:5) means that nothing passes away or is lost, but that everything is brought back again in new form.” Cf. also M. Eugene Boring, Revelation, 220: “the one who does not quench a smoking wick or break a bruised reed (Isa. 42:3; Matt. 12:20) does not junk the cosmos and start anew—he renews the old and brings it to fulfillment. … God does not make “all new things,” but “all things new” (21:5). Cf. further Koester, Revelation, 795: “Revelation refers to the final defeat and judgment of the wicked by fire (Rev. 17:16; 19:20; 20:9-10, 14), but not to a final end of the world. … The book focuses on the destruction of earth’s destroyers (11:18), not on the destruction of the earth itself.” He continues by pointing out (ibid., 803) that “Interpreters often ask whether the new creation is a renewal of the first one … or a replacement of it … . But these categories are inadequate. On the one hand, there is a clear discontinuity between the first heaven and earth that pass away and the new heaven and earth that appear. The new is not a natural outgrowth of the old; it comes from God’s act of new creation. On the other hand, there is also continuity, in that people who live in the present creation have a future in the new creation.”

[6] Cf. G. B. Caird, A Commentary on the Revelation of St. John the Divine, 266, where he says that if the “end” in Revelation seems less than final it is because, “The end is not an event, but a person.” Cf. also Boring, Revelation, 215: “Shining through the varied pictures of ‘what it will be like’ is the conviction that John shares with Paul that at the end of the historical road God will be ‘all in all’ (… 1 Cor. 15:28). … God himself is the eschatological reality who embraces all things.” Cf. also Koester, Revelation, 807: “The book reveals what ‘the end’ is by revealing who God is. … The flow of the visions discloses the character of God, who makes all things new (21:5).” Cf. further Richard Bauckham, The Theology of the Book of Revelation, 27: “God precedes all things, as their Creator, and he will bring all things to eschatological fulfillment. He is the origin and goal of all history. He has the first word, in creation, and the last word, in new creation.”

[7] Cf. Koester, Revelation, 806: “Finally, God speaks in what is often considered the rhetorical climax of the book (21:5; … ). Although John understands his entire text to be a revelation from with [sic] God (1:1), God rarely speaks directly. … God clearly spoke in the introduction, where he said, ‘I am the Alpha and Omega’ (1:8). Now he speaks again in similar words so that his speech frames the book.”

[8] Cf. Boring, Revelation, 192: “God had never abdicated his kingship, nor had he been dethroned despite the pretensions of earthly claims to sovereignty. Yet usurpers had falsely operated in this world as though they were its rightful lords. The eschatological events now beginning only disclose what had always been the case: God alone is the true sovereign of the world.”

One Tribe

One Tribe

Revelation 7:9-17[1]

We who live in the “United States of America” often find ourselves wondering these days how “United” we really are. We see news reports of events happening in other parts of the nation, and we shake our heads in disbelief and wonder how our fellow citizens can be so different from each other. One author thinks the reason for this is that we are actually eleven different nations, the origins of which can to some extent be traced back in part to the original colonies.[2] Each of these nations represents a group of people with a unique outlook, lifestyle, and culture. From a different perspective, the Jefferson Institute has mapped out every county in the US based on the kind of community it represents.[3] They found twelve basic community types based on a wide variety of economic, cultural, educational, climate, and religious data. When you look at this kind of information, it’s no wonder that we feel more like the “Divided States of America!”

Unfortunately, for most of us, the ways of thinking and living, making and spending money, entertaining ourselves and raising our children, are so ingrained in us that we may not even notice them. We notice when others are different from us. But it’s incredibly easy to simply assume that “our way” is the right way, and those who differ from us have gone astray somehow. So it is that even in the church, we fight over ways of being Christian in this society, over our response to changes in the culture around us, and over what really defines us as Christians today. Unfortunately, most Christian denominations in the US are as divided as the rest of the country.

As we’ve been introduced to the Book of Revelation, we’ve seen how it focuses on what God is doing in this world. And we’ve witnessed the worship of God and of the Lamb who was slain by all creation. In our lesson for today, we get to look in on another worship scene. But this one comes after some seriously troubling visions. In the previous chapter, the Lamb begins to open the seals that initiate God’s judgment. The first four seals unleash the fabled “Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.” They in turn inflict conquest, warfare, famine, and death upon the earth. The sixth of the seven seals on the scroll initiates cosmic catastrophes: the sun is darkened, the moon turned to blood, the stars fall from the heavens and the mountains topple. These are traditional images in the Bible depicting the end of all things.[4]

After all of that, we would expect to see the end of all things. That would be the logical conclusion of what has transpired in chapter six. But instead of the witnessing the end, we see another scene of worship.[5] In this case, however, the focus is not on the object of worship, but rather on those who are gathered around the throne, worshiping God and the Lamb. As before, the group is described as a vast throng: it is a “great multitude that no one could count,” and it is made up of those “from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages.”[6]  It seems to me that this vision of those who worship around the throne of God is very similar to St. Paul’s vision that “that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, …, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2:10-11).

I think it is significant that although this multitude that cannot be counted who are worshiping God and the Lamb around the throne are said to have come from different nations, tribes, peoples, and languages, in this vision of worship they are called the “servants of God” (Rev. 7:3).[7] Despite any differences in their ethnic origins, their culture, their race, they are all described as martyrs who have faithfully borne witness to Jesus even to the point of death (Rev. 7:14). And there is no division or disagreement or disunity among them. They are united in their ascription of praise to God and to the Lamb: “Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb” (Rev. 7:10).

In Revelation, as in the Gospel of John, the ultimate goal of God’s saving work among the human family is that we would all become one tribe: the servants of God.[8] We see this reflected in the description of those worshiping around the throne earlier in Revelation: “every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them” (Rev. 5:13). While those who worship God may come from all different races and people groups, from different classes and walks of life, in God’s sight we are intended to make up one tribe: the people of God. And it is significant that it is in worship that all the ways humanity has of distinguishing one group from one another are essentially erased. At the end of all things, there is only the vast multitude of humankind united in their worship of God and the Lamb.

I don’t think that all differences are a bad thing. In fact, I think diversity can make us stronger if we don’t let it tear us apart. But the vision of worship around the throne of God in our lesson from Revelation for today is much bigger than any one people or nation. This vision assures us that regardless of the color of our skin, regardless of our family origins, regardless of our language or nationality, we will all one day unite around the throne of God. We will all one day confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father. That is the ultimate goal of God’s saving work in Jesus, the Lamb who was slain: to unite the divided human family as one people who worship God, one clan who are the servants of God, one tribe who are faithful in bearing witness to Jesus.

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[1] ©2016 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Dr. Alan Brehm on 4/17/2016 at Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

[2] Cf. Reid Wilson, “Which of the 11 American nations do you live in?” The Washington Post, November 8, 2013 accessed at https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2013/11/08/which-of-the-11-american-nations-do-you-live-in/ .

[3] Cf. The Jefferson Institute’s website: http://www.patchworknation.org/regions-page.

[4] Cf. Jürgen Roloff, A Continental Commentary: The Revelation of John, 92, where he cites passages from Joel, Amos, Isaiah, and Ezekiel. Cf. also David E. Aune, Revelation 6–16, 424: “the events accompanying the breaking of each seal (with the exception of the fifth) belong to traditional Jewish and early Christian conceptions of the tribulations that will introduce the end …, though the scenario stops just short of the great day of wrath itself.”

[5] Cf. M. Eugene Boring, Revelation, 127: “They looked for the End and what came was the church, not as a substitute for the act of God but itself a dimension of God’s saving activity.” Cf. also Richard Bauckham, The Theology of the Book of Revelation, 79-80, where he says, “the victory of the Lamb’s followers through martyrdom” … “intervenes between the sixth and the seventh judgements of the first series of seven judgements: the seal-openings.” At this point, it would appear that “The judgment has been delayed only so that they can escape it through martyrdom.” But Bauckham insists that thus far the real secret of God’s purpose for the role of the church in the establishment of God’s kingdom on earth has not been revealed.” That “secret” is that the repentance of humankind is effected not by judgment but by the faithful witness of the church.

[6] In fact, the chapter seems to describe two different groups, the 144,000 from the tribes of Israel and the “great multitude.” However, as Bauckham, Theology of Revelation, 76, points out, in Revelation there is a contrast between what John hears and what he sees. He says, “The 144,000 from the twelve tribes of Israel (7:4-8) contrast with the innumerable multitude from all nations (7:9). But the two images depict the same reality.”  Cf. similarly, Craig R. Koester, Revelation, 419, 424; cf. also ibid., 424: “God’s promise to preserve and restore the tribes of Israel is kept  y redeeming people from every tribe and nation through the death of Jesus.” Cf. also Roloff, Revelation of John, 98. On the other hand, Christopher C. Rowland, “The Book of Revelation,” New Interpreters Bible XII:620-21, where he asserts that the first group is a Jewish remnant, while the second consists of those who are identified with Christ. Cf. also Aune, Revelation 6–16, 440-60, where he argues extensively for the view that the 144,000 represent a Jewish remnant.

[7] Cf. Koester, Revelation, 416-17, where he points out that the marking of slaves on the face was an act of punishment. He insist that this does not fit the context here. Cf. also ibid., 211, where he summarizes the idea of Christians as “servants” of God in Revelation. He says, “God’s people address him as Lord and Master and are to obey (4:8, 11; 6:10; 12:17; 14:12), but the paradox is that God’s servants are truly free, since Christ freed them from subjection to other powers (1:5, cf. Rom 6:18-23; 1 Cor 9:19; Gal 5:13).”

[8] Cf. Jürgen Moltmann, In the End—the Beginning: The Life of Hope, 150, where he speaks of “the restoration of all things” and “universal reconciliation” as “an expression of hope and of trust in God’s goodness.” Cf. also  Jürgen Moltmann, The Way of Jesus Christ, 256, where he extends this reconciliation and restoration beyond the human family to include all God’s creatures.

Worthy

Worthy

Revelation 5:11-14[1]

When I was an eager college freshman starting out on my educational journey, because I had already committed my life to ministry, I was a “ministerial student.” Those of us who fell into that category underwent significant testing at the beginning and end of our college careers. We took various personality profiles, including one that measured how dogmatic we were. One of the “tests” we took was to arrange in the order of importance the various tasks of ministry, at least according to our perspective. I don’t remember all of how I answered that test, but I do remember that I placed worship near the bottom of the list. Thankfully, by the time I graduated, it was at or near the top.

I’m afraid that many of us might have made the same mistake. If your experience was like mine growing up, worship was a boring event you had to endure. It was a place where you heard the same old things over and over. The sermons were dry and mind-numbing. The music was typically less than inspiring. And the prayers were hollow repetitions of standard phrases everybody said every week. There just didn’t seem to be much of a reason to be there. For all I know, some of you may still feel that way about worship, although I certainly hope not. But I think we’d have to admit that, for the most part, worship is not something that is a high priority for many people these days.

So, when we hear the lesson from the Book of Revelation for today, it may strike us as odd. It comes from two chapters that are completely dominated by a scene of worship. In chapter 4, those who are gathered around the throne worship God, saying, “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created” (Rev. 4:11). And in chapter 5, the vast throngs of all created beings worship Jesus, saying, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slaughtered to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” (Rev. 5:12). In our setting, all that may leave us scratching our heads.[2]

As I mentioned last week, the Book of Revelation provides struggling believers with images of God’s rule as the true reality in this world to counter the claims that contradicted their faith. One of the most basic ways in which the Bible has done that throughout the centuries is by reminding people of faith that, regardless of what may happen to us in this life, God remains on the throne, ruling all things with mercy and love and faithfulness.[3] One of the most familiar expressions of that vision is found in the Book of Psalms. Again and again, the Psalms reassure those who may be struggling in this life that we can trust that God will see to it that his grace will have the last word.

One of the fundamental premises for this faith is the belief that God is the one who created all things in the beginning. As the innumerable voices cry out in Revelation, “You are worthy, our Lord and God, … for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created” (Rev. 4:11). The idea is that God is the only one powerful enough to create all the heavens and the earth and everything in them. And for that reason alone, for the fact that God has created a marvelous universe, God is worthy of our worship.[4] But more than that, Revelation reminds us that this God is the one who is powerful enough to right all the wrongs in this world.

That, in and of itself, would be reason enough for our worship of God. But the vision in this passage goes on to declare that the Lamb who gave his life for us all is also worthy of our worship. Again, the vast multitude praise him, saying, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slaughtered to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” (Rev. 5:12). Part of the reason for this worship is actually found in the verses preceding our lesson: the Lamb who was slaughtered “ransomed for God [those] from every tribe and language and people and nation” (Rev. 5:9).[5] Because he gave his life to set us all free, he is worthy to receive worship alongside the one who sits on the throne.[6]

I think it’s important to recognize that the scene of worship around the throne of God is framed by the fact that the risen Lord is “the Lamb who was slaughtered.” [7] The Easter message is not that a ruling monarch was “assumed” to heavenly glory.  Rather it is that the power to vindicate one who was executed as a criminal is a power that can transform everything and everyone.  We hold this hope in the assurance that if death could not stop him, then nothing can.[8] And he will continue to transform all things until every knee bows and every tongue joins in the chorus, “worthy is the Lamb”!

Our lesson from Revelation, and the context from which it is drawn, presents us with the two most basic reasons for worshipping God. First, God is the creator of all things, and as such he also has the power to ensure that all things work out for good in the end. Second, Jesus is the one who gave his life for us all, and nothing can stop him from finishing his work of making all things new. Like Christians throughout the ages, we worship God because we constantly need to be reminded of these two central affirmations of our faith. We don’t worship because God needs some kind of ego boost. We worship because we need to be reminded who it is who is at work in our lives here and now. We worship because our Creator and our Savior are worthy.

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[1] ©2016 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Dr. Alan Brehm on 4/10/2016 at Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

[2] In fact, in the overall purpose of Revelation, “The issue of true versus false worship is fundamental to John’s prophetic insight into the power-structures of the world his readers lived in. In the end, the book is about the incompatibility of the exclusive monotheistic worship portrayed in chapter 4 with every kind of idolatry—the political, social and economic idolatries from which more narrowly religious idolatry is inseparable.” Cf. Richard Bauckham, The Theology of the Book of Revelation, 35. Cf. similarly Craig R. Koester, Revelation, 383, where he points out that the visions of the worship of the beast in Revelation includes features that were common to the Roman imperial cult. He says, “It was common to give gold wreaths to Greek and Roman rulers, who might be called ‘lord’ and ‘god,’ but in Revelation the wreaths and titles are given to the Creator (4:10-11). Similarly, hymns were sung to the emperors, who wanted it known that they ruled by the universal consensus of people in their realm …; however, in Rev 5, God and the Lamb are acclaimed worthy of rule by all creation.”

[3] Cf. Bauckham, Theology of Revelation, 32, where he observes that in Revelation, “true knowledge of who God is is inseparable from worship of God.” Cf. also M. Eugene Boring, Revelation, 102, where he says that “This scene is the theological fountainhead and anchor point for the whole document. The bulk of John’s writing will be composed of visions of the catastrophes represented in the traditional apocalyptic imagery of the seals, trumpets, and bowls of chapters 6-18, … . Yet before portraying these eschatological woes, John wants the hearer-reader to see what he has seen: At the heart of things God rules in sublime majesty, the God who has defined himself as the Lamb who suffers for others.”

[4] Cf. Bauckham, Theology of Revelation, 48: “The one God is defined as the One who brought all things into existence. As Creator, he alone has ultimate power over everything. As Creator, to whom all creatures owe their very being, he alone is to be worshipped.” He says further (ibid., 50) that “the roots of the religious apprehension of the uniqueness of God” is “the awareness that beyond all the interdependence of creation there is One to who alone all things owe even existence …. This awareness is inseparable from monotheistic worship, in which worship is acknowledgment of the ultimacy and incomparability of this Creator ….” Cf. also Koester, Revelation, 350, where he affirms that in Revelation God’s “sovereignty over the world is legitimate because he brought all things into being.”

[5] The language is intentionally inclusive. Cf. Koester, Revelation, 380: “God’s intent was that the earth’s tribes (Gen. 12:3; 28:14; Ps 72:17; Amos 3:2 LXX) and nations (Gen. 22:18 LXX) should be blessed and that all peoples would serve God (Pss 67:3; 117:1; Mic 4:1). Similarly, Revelation calls people of every tribe and nation to worship God and shows them being redeemed by the lamb (Rev. 5:9; 7:9; 14:6).” Cf. also Boring, Revelation, 111, where he observes that both worship scenes conclude on “an absolutely universal note.” He continues, “The last words of the heavenly chorus of 4:11 worship God as the Creator of all; the choir that sings the final chorus of 5:13 in praise to the Lambe is comprised of the whole creation.”

[6] In answer to the objection that the worship of Jesus would seem to be incompatible with exclusive worship of God, Bauckham, Theology of Revelation, 60, answers, “John does not wish to represent Jesus as an alternative object of worship alongside God, but as one who shares in the glory due to God. He is worthy of divine worship because his worship can be included in the worship of the one God.” He elaborates (ibid., 62): “It was because Christians owed salvation to Jesus Christ that he was to be worshipped. …. The salvation was too closely connected with Jesus himself for Jesus to be bypassed in worship offered to God for it, but at the same time it was salvation from God that Jesus gave and so Jesus was not treated as an alternative object of worship alongside God. He was included in the worship of God. More generally, we could say that it was because Jesus functioned as God in early Christian religion that he was worshipped. All the divine functions in relation to the world—as Saviour, Lord and Judge—wre exercised by Jesus, of course on God’s behalf.” He hastens to add (ibid., 62-63), however, that “it is doubtful whether, once Jesus was worshipped, Jewish [Christian] monotheists could for long be content with merely functional divinity. The one who is worthy of the worship due only to God must somehow belong to the reality of the one God.” Cf. also Koester, Revelation, 392: “In Revelation, Christ is not a second object of worship alongside God but is included within the worship of the one God, since God’s purposes are accomplished through him.” Cf. Boring, Revelation, 106, who goes further when he says, “the throne of the Lamb and the throne of God are one and the same—God is the one who has defined himself in Jesus Christ.” The result is “that when Christians say ‘God,’ the one they refer to is the one definitively revealed in Jesus, the Crucified.”                                                                    

[7] Cf. William Willimon, “A Song to Shake the World,” a sermon preached 4/26/1998; accessed at http://www.chapel.duke.edu/worship/sunday/ viewsermon.aspx?id=70 . He explains how this scene encapsulates the Easter message: “The Lamb, who knows what it’s like to suffer, to bleed, and to die, now rules with God, as God, at the center of a great shout of acclamation.” Cf. also Koester, Revelation, 386, where he points out three aspects of the “slaughter” of the Lamb as his victory: first, “Jesus conquered by dying as a witness who remained faithful to God”; second, “Jesus’ death is unique in that it alone redeems people for life in God’s kingdom”; and third, the fact that the Lamb is seen as standing means that the slaughtered Lamb is alive, thus “Jesus’ victory continues in resurrection.”

[8] Cf. Bauckham, Theology of Revelation, 73: “Fundamental to Revelation’s whole understanding of the way in which Christ establishes God’s kingdom on earth is the conviction that in his death and resurrection Christ has already won his decisive victory over evil.”

Alpha and Omega

Alpha and Omega

Revelation 1:1-8[1]

The central affirmation of Easter is that by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, God has once and for all vindicated him as Lord of all. But you and I live in a world in which we are surrounded by images and messages that contradict that central element of our faith. Between Hollywood and Washington, DC and Wall Street, the combined effect is to make it clear that Jesus is essentially irrelevant in our culture. The “lords” of our society are those with the most money, or the most power, or the strongest celebrity appeal. And they don’t typically promote the ideals that Jesus taught. The movies we watch, the athletes we cheer, the advertisements on TV, even the music we listen to proclaim the message that the survival of the strongest and the wealthiest and the most attractive is the true reality in our world.

It may be hard for us to recognize this because it has so thoroughly worked its way into the fabric of almost every aspect of our culture. If you ever find yourself in the Mall, compare the images of people that the stores use to sell their products with the actual people around you. There’s not much similarity. In fact, the “appearance” that our culture promotes couldn’t be further from who we are as a people. But we’ve gotten so used to seeing people with perfect teeth and hair and eyes and bodies trying to sell us everything from cars to clothes to prescriptions that we don’t even notice the subtle message that conveys to us: if you don’t look like this, or have this kind of wealth, you don’t really count.

This was the context into which the Book of Revelation was written. The Christian faith was definitely a minority in the Roman Empire. Christians would either rise before dawn or stay up late at night to worship Jesus as Lord. There was no such thing as a weekend or a Sabbath day in the Roman world. Every day was a work day. And as those believers made their way to homes to worship Jesus as Lord, all around them were images that proclaimed that Zeus was lord, or Caesar was Lord.[2] They, too, lived in a world that was dominated by images of the “powers that be” that contradicted the heart of their faith and the teachings to which they had devoted themselves, sometimes at great peril to their lives.

It is to that setting that the Book of Revelation was addressed. This unique part of the Bible was not written to enable the “fortune tellers” of our age to predict the coming of Christ or the end of the world. Rather it was written to the Christians of that day, living in a world that contradicted their faith.[3] One of the major purposes of this part of Scripture that so many of us avoid was to provide struggling believers with images of a different reality, a reality in which God is the one who rules over all things with “wisdom, power, and love.” Unfortunately, It’s easy to lose sight of the forest for the trees in the Book of Revelation. Much of the symbolism seems strange to us. But at the heart of the book is the message that, despite all appearances to the contrary, God’s rule is the true reality in this world, and one day God’s rule will be fulfilled as God completes the work of making all things new.[4]

In our lesson for today, the Scripture simply hints at this by referring to God as “the Alpha and the Omega,” the one “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”[5] As you may know, Alpha and Omega are the first and the last letters of the Greek alphabet. So naming God as the “Alpha and the Omega” is another way of saying that God is “The First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.”  In other words, we can count on the God who created all things in the beginning to make all things new in the end.[6] It’s an affirmation that we along with millions of other Christians sing every Sunday morning: “as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end, Amen! Amen!” The God who rules over this world will be the same God at the end of all things as he was at the beginning and is now: a God of infinite love.

The other affirmation in our lesson for today is that God is the “Almighty” one. This resonates with countless statements in the Hebrew Bible about the God who is the “Lord of hosts,” or the “Lord of the angel armies”.[7] The idea is very similar to another image in the book of Revelation: God is the one who “sits on the throne,” ruling over the whole universe.[8]  The purpose for this is to make clear that that God is the one whose rule is ultimately true. Despite the fact that the Roman Empire proclaimed itself as the ultimate power in the world of that day, and even demanded worship of those under its influence, the book of Revelation insists that this is an illusion that will one day be swept away.[9] And, of course, Rome’s claim to power was indeed swept away centuries ago.

We live in a world that is dominated by those who make claims that can seem just as false as the claims Rome made in ancient times. In the face of those claims the Scripture reassured the Christians of that day that God is the one who would have the last word. I think the message of Revelation for us today is the same. It stands as a reminder that we too can trust that God will see to it that his will is done on earth as it is in heaven. That means all those who (falsely) claim to wield power over the world in the present time are only deluding themselves. Their power may seem very real here and now, but ultimately, just as God’s rule had the first word at creation, so will his rule have the last word in the end. As God was in the beginning, so he ever shall be: the Alpha and Omega.

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[1] © 2016 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Dr. Alan Brehm on 4/3/2016 at Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE. An audio version of this sermon is available at http://www.hickmanpresbyterian.org/.

[2] Cf. Richard Bauckham, The Theology of the Book of Revelation,  17: “Civic and religious architecture, iconography, statues, rituals and festivals, … all provided powerful visual impressions of Roman imperial power and the splendor of pagan religion. In this context, Revelation provides a set of Christian prophetic counter-images which impress on its readers a different vision of the world … . The visual power of the book effects a kind of purging of the Christian imagination, refurbishing it with alternative visions of how the world is and will be.” Cf. Craig R. Koester, Revelation, 132: “John’s message ran counter to the public rhetoric of the Roman era, which celebrated the peace and prosperity that the imperial rule had brought. According to the dominant discourse, Roman rule was invincible and benevolent.”

[3] Cf. M. Eugene Boring, Revelation, 40, where he argues that the point of apocalyptic documents like Revelation in the ancient world was not to answer the question “Will there be an end of the world?” but rather “Is God faithful?” He says that they “lived in impossible situations, … when children saw their parents imprisoned or killed because their faithfulness to their confession of Jesus as the only Lord made it impossible for them to yield to the imperial religion … .” In that situation the question was “how can one still believe in the faithfulness of God?” He continues, “It was the honor and integrity of God as God that was at stake, not just human selfish longing for golden streets and pearly gates.” Cf. Koester, Revelation, 132, where he reminds us that the setting was actually somewhat complex: “Readers who were overtly threatened would be aware of the challenges and needed encouragement to persevere, but those who were complacent or accommodating would not have sensed the problems. John would need to challenge them  to see issues of which they were unaware, while calling for commitment that would set them at odds with the dominant social, religious, and economic patterns of the cities where they lived.”

[4] Cf. Bauckham, Theology of the Book of Revelation, 40: “The whole of Revelation could be regarded as a vision of the fulfillment of the first three petitions of the Lord’s Prayer: ‘Your name be hallowed, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven’ (Matt. 6:9-10). John and his readers lived in a world in which God’s name was not hallowed, his will was not done, and evil ruled through the oppression and exploitation of the Roman system of power. But in chapter 4, he sees in heaven, the sphere of ultimate reality, the absolute holiness, righteousness and sovereignty of God. From this vision of God’s name hallowed and God’s will done in heaven, it follows that his kingdom must come on earth.”

[5] Cf. Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics, 1.2:53, where he points out, as many do, that “the one who is and who was and who is to come” is very likely an interpretation of the revelation of God’s name in Exod. 3:14; “I am who I am.” He says, “From the fact that God is He who exists and therefore is the Living One in the supreme sense and therefore the Almighty, it follows that He is not only this, but, as this, also He who was and He who cometh, Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. And vice versa, by the fact that He is the first and the last, it is indicated that He is truly He who is. the Living One, the Almighty.”

[6] Cf. Bauckham, Theology of the Book of Revelation, 27: “God precedes all things, as their Creator, and he will bring all things to eschatological fulfillment. He is the origin and goal of all history. He has the first word, in creation, and the last word, in new creation.” Cf. also Koester, Revelation, 220: “Revelation recalls texts that stress the singular lordship of Israel’s God: ‘I am the first and the last, there is no other god but me’ (Isa 44:6; cf. 41:4; 48:12).” Cf. further Jürgen Roloff, A Continental Commentary: The Revelation of John, 28: “the God to whom [John] bears witness is the living and historically active God.”

[7] Cf. Bauckham, Theology of the Book of Revelation, 30: the designations “The Lord, the God of hosts” and “the Lord of hosts” are used especially in the prophetic books of the Hebrew Bible to indicate “Yahweh's unrivalled power over all things and therefore his supremacy over the course of historical events. … The Greek pantokrator (‘almighty’) indicates not so much God’s abstract omnipotence as his actual control over all things.” Cf. Koester, Revelation, 220: “Revelation, …, refers to God as pantokrator, ascribing to him power over all things. In Revelation God’s supreme might is expressed in his acts of creation, judgment, and righteous rule (Rev 1:8; 4:8; 18:8; 19:6; 21:22; 22:5-6).”

[8] Cf. Bauckham, Theology of the Book of Revelation, 31, where he emphasizes that the vision of God on the throne provides one of the major starting points for the whole book: “the vision of God’s sovereignty in heaven.” He continues (ibid.), saying that this “makes it possible for John to enlarge his readers’ perspective on their own situation by setting it within the broader context of God’s universal purpose of overcoming all opposition to his rule and establishing his kingdom in the world.” From the perspective of Revelation, God’s sovereign rule is “the true reality which must in the end also prevail on earth.” Cf. also Roloff, Revelation of John, 29: “whereas human rulers like to claim total dominion over the world and have themselves celebrated as rulers of history, …, in truth it is God alone to whom dominion over the world and history belongs.”

[9] Cf. Bauckham, Theology of the Book of Revelation, 34: “The Roman Empire, like most political powers in the ancient world, represented and propagated its power in religious terms. Its state religion, featuring worship both of the deified emperors and of the traditional gods of Rome, expressed political loyalty through religious worship. In this way it absolutized its power, claiming for itself the ultimate, divine sovereignty over the world.” By contrast (ibid, 35), Revelation sees the “the view of the Empire promoted by Roman propaganda” from “the perspective of heaven, which unmasks the pretensions of Rome. Revelation portrays the Roman Empire as a system of violent oppression, founded on conquest, maintained by violence and oppression. It is a system both of political tyranny and of economic exploitation.” Cf. also ibid, 39: “it was the Christian vision of the incomparable God, exalted above all worldly power, which relativized Roman power and exposed Rome’s pretensions to divinity as a dangerous delusion.”