Revelation 3: 7 - 13

7 ‘To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write:

These are the words of him who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open. ⁸ I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name. ⁹ I will make those who are of the synagogue of Satan, who claim to be Jews though they are not, but are liars – I will make them come and fall down at your feet and acknowledge that I have loved you. ¹⁰ Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come on the whole world to test the inhabitants of the earth.

¹¹ I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown. ¹² The one who is victorious I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will they leave it. I will write on them the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God; and I will also write on them my new name. ¹³ Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Relying on God’s Strength.

Yesterday we looked at the letter to the church in Sardis, and noted that it was nearly all negative. Today’s reading, the letter to the church in Philadelphia, is, by contrast, nearly all positive! The church at Philadelphia is described as a church with ‘little strength’ (v. 8). But despite the fact that they have little strength, they have ‘kept God’s word and have not denied his name.’ And again, in verse 10, they have kept God’s command to endure patiently.

Is it good to be a church of ‘little strength’? Maybe we might say that about ourselves in Bethel. When a person or a church is ‘strong’ because of human strength, then there is a risk that they will rely on that human strength, rather than relying on the Holy Spirit. A well-known verse, found in Zechariah 4: 6, says, ‘“Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,” says the Lord Almighty.’ And in Ephesians 6: 10, at the end of the passage about the armour of God, Paul writes, ‘Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.’ Both of those verses emphasise that strength is good, but only when it is the strength of the Lord. If we have our own ‘might’ or ‘power’ we might be proud and we might go our own way rather than God’s way – even when seeking to live the Christian life or run a church.

In 1 Corinthians 1: 27 - 29 it says, ‘But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things – and the things that are not – to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.’ 

In the opening verses of this letter, there is reference to an open door. What Jesus opens, no-one can shut, and vice versa. And not only that, but he says to the church, ‘I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut.’ We sometimes pray for an ‘open door’ for opportunities to proclaim the Gospel – an open door for mission. Well, if we are looking, we will see that Jesus has placed an open door before us in the right place – the place and people where he wants us to reach out. And not only that, but no-one else can shut that door. Jesus opens the door for his mission, and we need to recognise the open doors and make the most of them. Club 707 has an open door into many of the schools in Caerphilly at present – and we must do all we can in going through that door with the love of Christ and the message of the Gospel. Where is there an open door for mission in your life? Where is there an open door for Bethel?

 

Prayer

Lord, we might think we have little strength of our own – please give us the strength of the Holy Spirit to empower us to serve you. May we never try to rely on our own strength. Show us the open doors that you have placed before us, and help us to go through them – doors open for your mission. Amen.

Revelation 3: 1 - 6

 

¹ ‘To the angel of the church in Sardis write:

These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. ² Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God. ³ Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; hold it fast, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you.

⁴ Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy. ⁵ The one who is victorious will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out the name of that person from the book of life, but will acknowledge that name before my Father and his angels. ⁶ Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Wake up!

Sardis was a city that was once great, but at the time of this letter, was in decline. The letter to the church in Sardis is largely negative. Even the part near the beginning (which appears in nearly all seven), beginning ‘I know your deeds…’ does not list positive deeds, unlike most of the others. We have previously seen things like hard work, perseverance, love, faith and service mentioned here. Instead, in Sardis, it is ‘I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead.’

That’s a harsh statement, isn’t it? Churches have reputations. That has always been true, and it remains so today. And people have two problems when it comes to talking about another church – an unhelpful desire to share negative stories, and a poor grasp of time passing! More than once I have been saddened to hear people talking about something in a church other than their own, and talking about some trouble that happened ‘this year’ – when in fact it was over five years ago, long since dealt with, and nothing like the trouble the person describes! I have heard it about Bethel, and about other churches in Caerphilly. Those are examples of a church gaining a negative reputation. However, Sardis had a good reputation which was in fact undeserved! Maybe that’s worse! They had a reputation of being alive, when in fact they were dead. This can be a dangerous situation. Churches sometimes look like they are doing very well, but it might be due to a combination good management, innovative ideas and plenty of money. A church is alive when it is filled with the Holy Spirit and the love of Christ shared within the fellowship and outside it. And sadly, even Christians can be fooled by outward appearance, and find it difficult to tell the difference.

Although in verse 1 it says they are ‘dead’, in verse 2 the message is ‘Wake up!’ So they are not quite dead – only sleeping. Individual churches (and The Church) are often described as sleeping. Some people say it about the whole church in the UK. Personally I think that is a negative generalisation. There is plenty of life in many places in the church in the UK – but we also need to be aware of a need in many parts for us to Wake Up! We would be wise to look at our own church and question whether we have an undeserved reputation for being alive. Do we need to wake up, shake off the cobwebs, and really do something to be a light in the world and in the community? Do we need to wake up, shake ourselves from slumber, receive the Holy Spirit and really grow as disciples? What does it mean to be awake and alive as a church, even during the covid-19 crisis?

 

Prayer

Heavenly Father, please help us not to perpetuate a false reputation for our own church, or for other churches. May we be filled with your Spirit, raised from slumber, raised to life in love, service, obedience, and bring light to a dark world. Amen.

Revelation 2: 18 - 29

18 ‘To the angel of the church in Thyatira write:

These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze. ¹⁹ I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first.

²⁰ Nevertheless, I have this against you: you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. ²¹ I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. ²² So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways. ²³ I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds.

²⁴ Now I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets, “I will not impose any other burden on you, ²⁵ except to hold on to what you have until I come.”

²⁶ To the one who is victorious and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations – ²⁷ that one “will rule them with an iron sceptre and will dash them to pieces like pottery” – just as I have received authority from my Father. ²⁸ I will also give that one the morning star. ²⁹ Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Be Faithful to the Truth.

Last week we looked at chapter 1 and saw how John’s vision of Jesus was described very clearly. And each of the seven letters picks up on one or more of the descriptions of Jesus. In this letter to the church at Thyatira, we read that ‘These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire,’ matching Rev. 1: 14. Jesus sees everything – he sees our sinful choices, he sees through our excuses and our attempts to justify our disobedience.

In verse 19, the Christians at Thyatira are commended for five things: love, faith, service, perseverance and endurance. Unlike the church at Ephesus, who were described as having lost their first love, Jesus here is commending the church at Thyatira for their love. And not only that, but they are now doing more than they did at first.

But, sadly, that is where the good things end. The big problem in Thyatira is that the church there is tolerating a woman who is a false prophet. She would have been a person who gained a following within the church. No doubt she had a commanding personality and was very persuasive in her teaching. But her teaching was opposed to the true teaching of Christ and the apostles. She is a person who misleads the true disciples in the church in Thyatira.

We often believe that we are pretty strong in the faith, and not likely to be led astray by false teaching. However, Christians can very easily be led astray even in the church today, and even those who believe they are steadfast in their faith. Whilst we should be open to new moves of the Holy Spirit and get involved in the mission of the Lord in our church and in our area, we should always test new teaching, and take care. There is a risk that Christians today are so keen to see something ‘new’ and get involved in the latest new spiritual teaching, that we become careless. We should all be so careful that we do not slip into the mistake that some of the members of the church at Thyatira made – being led astray by a member of their own church who was a false prophet. I suspect that this woman (referred to as ‘Jezebel’ in this letter, after the evil wife of King Ahab (1 Kings 18)) would have been an attractive person with a charismatic personality. Even in the church today, Christians can be led astray by being won over by a person’s worldly charms.

Take care when a new teaching sweeps across parts of the 21^st Century Church, and when a popular individual pushes it – Take great care to always be faithful to the truth!

 

Prayer

Lord, may we be faithful to you and your teaching, not led astray by that which is false. Please help us to be like the Thyatirans in our love, faith, service, perseverance and endurance. Help us remember that the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire, sees through all our actions and intentions. Amen.

Revelation 2: 12 - 17

 

¹² ‘To the angel of the church in Pergamum write:

These are the words of him who has the sharp, double-edged sword. ¹³ I know where you live – where Satan has his throne. Yet you remain true to my name. You did not renounce your faith in me, not even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was put to death in your city – where Satan lives.

¹⁴ Nevertheless, I have a few things against you: there are some among you who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin so that they ate food sacrificed to idols and committed sexual immorality. ¹⁵ Likewise, you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans. ¹⁶ Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.

¹⁷ Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give that person a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it.

Where Satan has his Throne.

Pergamum was the political capital of the Roman province of Asia. And it was also the centre of emperor-worship. This began in the time of Augustus, in 29 BC. By the time Revelation was written, the emperor was Domitian, who was a cruel persecutor of Christians. He also demanded that Roman citizens should worship him as ‘lord and god’. This seems to be a likely explanation for why Pergamum is described here as the city ‘where Satan has his throne,’ and ‘where Satan lives’ (v.13).

The church at Pergamum is commended for remaining true to Jesus and for not renouncing their faith in him. Antipas is mentioned here and nowhere else, so we don’t know any more about him. But the context makes it likely that he refused to worship the emperor, remaining faithful to Jesus, and was put to death for it, maybe as an example to the other Christians. At the beginning of the book of Revelation (Rev. 1: 5), John described Jesus as the ‘faithful witness.’ Now here in verse 13, Jesus uses the same title for Antipas – ‘my faithful witness, who was put to death in your city.’ And despite the fact that one of their own number was put to death, the rest of the church remained faithful and did not renounce their faith in Christ.

All the other six letters in Revelation 2 and 3 include the phrase, ‘I know your deeds.’ This one, instead, says, ‘I know where you live – where Satan has his throne.’ Today it is true that the church lives where Satan lives, or at least, where Satan has influence. The church lives side by side, shoulder to shoulder, with the influence of Satan. It is here in Penyrheol, the Aber Valley and Caerphilly. Why would we live so close to where Satan lives? Well, where else would we live? The church is here to bring the Kingdom of God into our locality. We are here to bring light into the places of darkness. And today, in our society and our local community, there is darkness in many places. There is darkness in people’s homes and in the media and in politics. And everywhere, the darkness is side by side with the light – God’s people. Nevertheless, there is more we need to do to shine light in the darkness. In the prologue to John’s Gospel it says, ‘The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.’ (John 1: 5)

Jesus is the light of the world (John 8: 12), and as his followers, we too are the light of the world (Matt. 5: 14). What can we do to shine the light more brightly? How can we, even though we are not meeting in our building, shine a light into the darkest places in our community?

 

Prayer

Father, we know that wherever we are in our society today, we are a light shining in the darkness. We live side-by-side with the influence of Satan – and it is the place we are called to be your people, making a difference. Please help us, by your Spirit, to be a light shining in the darkest places. Amen.

Revelation 2: 8 - 11

 

⁸ ‘To the angel of the church in Smyrna write:

These are the words of him who is the First and the Last, who died and came to life again. ⁹ I know your afflictions and your poverty – yet you are rich! I know about the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. ¹⁰ Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you life as your victor’s crown.

¹¹ Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who is victorious will not be hurt at all by the second death.

Persecution.

Smyrna was a beautiful city, about 35 miles north of Ephesus. The church there was probably founded by members of the Ephesian church, but we do not know for sure. The city is now called Izmir, and the church there is the only one of the seven still in existence.

This is a shorter letter, and it is about persecution. It contains no rebuke, but rather encouraging words to the Christians in Smyrna to help them face the immense persecution. At this time the Romans, under Emperor Domitian, were persecuting Christians throughout the empire. And in some places the church was also facing persecution from the Jews. So the Christians in Smyrna were being persecuted on two fronts. But in verse 9, Jesus says that though they are afflicted and poor, yet they are rich! There are many Christians in the world today who are poor and afflicted. Those who are treated unfairly in countries such as Pakistan, Somalia, Afghanistan and so on. There would not be a materially wealthy Christian in any of those countries – yet they are rich in everything that really matters.

Verse 10 is both scary and encouraging. There is severe trouble coming, but if you remain faithful you will receive life as your victor’s crown. The other encouragement is that it says, ‘you will suffer persecution for ten days.’ Not literally ten days – but definitely a fixed period. It was persecution that would come to an end; it would not last forever.

We are not persecuted at present, but we are suffering and struggling with the covid-19 pandemic. We also can recognise and trust that it will not last forever.

At the time of this letter, there would have been a young man in Smyrna called Polycarp. Later, in 155 AD, Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, was martyred, after following Christ for 86 years. The Roman governor, anxious about Polycarp’s age, tried to get him to take the easy way out, and ‘just’ bow down to Caesar and renounce Christ. It is recorded that Polycarp said, “Eighty-six years I have served him, and he has done me no wrong. How then can I blaspheme my King and Saviour?”

In the West today, Christians are mainly not persecuted. We need to pray for those around the world who are facing great persecution, praying that they will stand up under the trouble they face. And we also need to pray that if it comes to us, we will have the strength and faithfulness that Polycarp had, and that we will know the power and love of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, being faithful, even to the point of death.

 

Prayer

Today, Lord, we remember our brothers and sisters around the world who are imprisoned because they are Christians. Those who are shunned by the families and communities, treated as second-class citizens, beaten, treated cruelly and even murdered because of their faith. Lord, be with them. Amen.

Revelation 2: 1 - 7

 ¹ ‘To the angel of the church in Ephesus write:

These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands. ² I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. ³ You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.

⁴ Yet I hold this against you: you have forsaken the love you had at first. ⁵ Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. ⁶ But you have this in your favour: you hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.

⁷ Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.

First Love.

Each of the seven letters is addressed to ‘The angel of the church in…’ It is lovely to think that every church has an angel overseeing it – that there is an ‘angel of Bethel, Penyrheol’! That might or might not be true, but the word ‘angel’ here in Revelation 2 and 3 could equally refer to human leaders or messengers. Different scholars have different ideas about this, and there is no clear right answer (and there is no room here to go into a detailed examination of the issue).

Each of the seven letters continues with ‘These are the words of him who…’ and it picks up on one or more of the elements of the description of Jesus that we looked at yesterday in chapter 1.

Each of the seven letters then says ‘I know’ something about the church situation. In Ephesus, Jesus knows about their hard work, perseverance and discernment of false teachers.

Most of the letters continue with some positives and negatives – things Jesus ‘holds against them’ and things in their favour. Most commentators today, when looking at this letter to Ephesus, pick up on the big one in verses 4 and 5: “Yet I hold this against you: you have forsaken the love you had at first. Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.” Verse 7 clearly says that this warning is for everyone – not just first century Ephesus, so we need to take it seriously.

We don’t know whether the Ephesians love that faded was for God, for one another within the fellowship, or for those outside in the community. But all three go together, and so it is likely that they have simply ceased to feel and show love in all areas. If they don’t go back to how they once were, Jesus will take away their lampstand. Remember, Jesus ‘walks among the seven golden lampstands,’ so this would mean Jesus no longer being among them.

Churches can sometimes emphasise so many other things, such as size, doctrinal purity, hard work, influence and worldly success, that they forget the key foundation. Love God and love one another are the two greatest commandments (Matt. 12: 30 - 31). If a church stops loving, then how can it be a church any more? The lampstand is taken away. This is a warning to all of us, including Bethel Penyrheol in the 21^st Century. How are we with our first love? Do we love God, and love one another? Do we love the people in our community who desperately need to receive that love, especially in this time of pandemic? This isn’t just ‘the church’ – this is about you and me. It is for all of us to love God and to love our neighbour, so that it becomes the hallmark of the church.

 

Prayer

Lord, we thank you for your presence in our church – that you walk among us. Please help us to love you and love one another, and show us where we need to do more in demonstrating that love. Amen.

Revelation 1: 9 - 20

 

⁹ I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. ¹⁰ On the Lord’s Day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet, ¹¹ which said: ‘Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea.’

¹² I turned round to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, ¹³ and among the lampstands was someone like a son of man, dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash round his chest. ¹⁴ The hair on his head was white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. ¹⁵ His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. ¹⁶ In his right hand he held seven stars, and coming out of his mouth was a sharp, double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.

¹⁷ When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: ‘Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. ¹⁸ I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.

¹⁹ ‘Write, therefore, what you have seen, what is now and what will take place later. ²⁰ The mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and of the seven golden lampstands is this: the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.

The First and the Last, the Living One.

John was in exile on the island of Patmos, a small Greek island in the Aegean Sea. Verse 10 says, “On the Lord’s Day I was in the Spirit.” It was a Sunday, and as John worshipped God, remembering the resurrection of Christ, he found himself drawing near to God in the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit filled him and lifted him, and as he worshipped, his awareness of God’s love and his presence was very strong. When we worship God, this kind of experience is available to all of us – but sadly rare. We need to pray that as we seek the Lord, he will come to us in a very real way in the Holy Spirit, and we will experience his presence and power.

As John’s own spirit met with the Holy Spirit, Jesus came to him in an amazing vision, full of symbolism. The lampstands represent the churches, and Jesus is ‘among’ them (v. 13). Today, Jesus is present in and among the churches as we gather (including online)! He is the Son of Man – the name Jesus used of himself in the Gospel accounts, and his appearance in the vision is very similar to that of the ‘Ancient of Days’ in Daniel 7: 9 - 10. His ‘robe reached down to his feet’ (v. 13) because his work was complete – a workman would tuck his robe into his belt to avoid tripping up while working. Jesus is perfectly holy – everything about this vision is shining with a brilliant light: there is no darkness in him whatsoever. In Ezekiel 43: 2, the prophet sees a vision of God, whose voice is like the ‘roar of rushing waters.’ Jesus, in John’s vision, speaks with God’s voice! (v. 15). The seven stars are the ‘angels of the seven churches’ (we’ll come back to them this week) – and they are held in Jesus’ right hand, the place of security in him. In Hebrews 4: 12 it says, “For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword.” And John sees just such a sword coming from Jesus mouth, because he is the Word of God and speaks it too. On the mount of Transfiguration, John (with Peter and James) saw Jesus transformed before them, glowing brilliant white – and now he sees that same face in this vision (v. 16).

Wow! What an experience for John to see Jesus in this way as he worshipped the Lord. And when we read this, it is quite something to try and imagine the picture, and to realise that all of these elements are meaningful for John and his original readers, and also for us today. This is the same Jesus Christ who is our Saviour – risen from the dead and walking with us every day.

 

Prayer

Lord Jesus, when I read the Gospel accounts I see your love and kindness, as well as your power and authority. And here in Revelation I see you revealed as the one true God. I come to you today in worship, bowing down before you, as John did. Thank you that you are the Living One; not dead, but alive for ever and ever! Amen.

Revelation 1: 1 - 8

 

¹ The revelation from Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, ² who testifies to everything he saw – that is, the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. ³ Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near.

⁴ John,

To the seven churches in the province of Asia:

Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits before his throne, ⁵ and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.

To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, ⁶ and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father – to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen.

⁷ ‘Look, he is coming with the clouds,’
    and ‘every eye will see him,
even those who pierced him’;
    and all peoples on earth ‘will mourn because of him.’
So shall it be! Amen.

⁸ ‘I am the Alpha and the Omega,’ says the Lord God, ‘who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.’

Double Blessings.

The book of Revelation is known as apocalyptic literature – meaning it reveals divine mysteries. It was written near the end of the first century to a Christian church that was suffering extreme persecution. It had meaning for those early readers, just as it has meaning for today’s readers. It is full of imagery, but that does not mean it is in a code that needs to be cracked.

The writer, John, is describing something that was ‘revealed’ to him (hence the title ‘Revelation’), by Jesus in a vision. We are going to spend nine days looking at the first three chapters of the book, which contain an introduction in chapter 1, and seven letters in chapters 2 and 3 – letters written to early churches in Asia.

The book is in the form of a letter in itself – and these first eight verses in today’s reading are the opening of the letter, with the ‘from’ and the ‘to’ parts that we are familiar with finding at the beginning of a biblical letter. It is from John, to the seven churches in the province of Asia (v. 4)

John gives a greeting from God the Father, and from God the Son. First, from the Father: “Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits before his throne.” That is a picture of the majesty and kingship of God, seated on his throne – and of the fact that he is eternal, with no beginning and no end. Second, from the Son: “and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.” He defeated death and rose again – and all of us will follow. Jesus was the ‘firstborn’. And as ruler of the kings, we sometimes use the phrase, ‘King of kings’.

Verse 7 matches what we looked at recently in 1 and 2 Thessalonians, concerning the truth of the Second Coming, and what it will be like: “‘Look, he is coming with the clouds,’ and ‘every eye will see him, even those who pierced him’; and all peoples on earth ‘will mourn because of him.’ So shall it be! Amen.”

This is a wonderful introduction to the book, and it sets the scene for what John will be writing about, concerning what has been revealed. There is a message to the seven churches, there is grace and peace from God the Father and God the Son, and Jesus is coming again! No wonder the writer gives a double blessing in verse 3 – We are blessed if we read aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed if we hear it and take to heart what is written in it!

 

Prayer

Lord, we thank you for the double blessing from reading and hearing the words of Revelation. Help us, by your Spirit, to understand it and learn from it. We worship you, our Father, who is, and who was, and who is to come, and Jesus Christ our Saviour, the firstborn from the dead, and King of kings! Amen.

Genesis 9: 1 - 17

 ¹ Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. ² The fear and dread of you will fall on all the beasts of the earth, and on all the birds in the sky, on every creature that moves along the ground, and on all the fish in the sea; they are given into your hands. ³ Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.

⁴ ‘But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it. ⁵ And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each human being, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of another human being.

⁶ ‘Whoever sheds human blood,
    by humans shall their blood be shed;
for in the image of God
    has God made mankind.

⁷ As for you, be fruitful and increase in number; multiply on the earth and increase upon it.’

⁸ Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: ⁹ ‘I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you ¹⁰ and with every living creature that was with you – the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you – every living creature on earth. ¹¹ I establish my covenant with you: never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.’

¹² And God said, ‘This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: ¹³ I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. ¹⁴ Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, ¹⁵ I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. ¹⁶ Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.’

¹⁷ So God said to Noah, ‘This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth.’

God’s Covenant with all Living Creatures.

A covenant is an agreement. We divide our Bible into two parts – the Old and New Testaments, which could also be called the old and new covenants. In the New Testament we learn of the covenant of salvation through Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who died for us, bringing about forgiveness for sin and reconciliation with God. He defeated sin on the cross, and in rising from the dead he defeated death. Jesus offers us the free gift – and it is for us to accept the gift by coming to him in repentance and confession of sins.

In the Old Testament, we find the covenant of God with his people, expressed in various ways with various people such as Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses and David. In this reading in Genesis 9 we find a covenant that God makes with Noah, and, indeed, with all generations to come. In fact (v. 10) it is a covenant with all living things!

First of all, God reiterates the instructions he gave to Adam, but with some slight changes. Compare Genesis 1: 28 with Genesis 9: 1 - 2 –

Gen. 1: 28 – “God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.’”

Gen. 9: 1 - 2 – “Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. The fear and dread of you will fall on all the beasts of the earth, and on all the birds in the sky, on every creature that moves along the ground, and on all the fish in the sea; they are given into your hands.”

Notice how a benevolent ‘rule’ over the animals has turned into a rule that instils ‘fear and dread’ into the animals. Also, in Gen. 1: 29, Adam and Eve were given plants and trees with seed-bearing fruit for food. Now, in Gen. 9: 3, all the animals are given to Noah and his descendants for food. The effect of sin are ongoing, and they affect the whole of creation.

Finally, we see the wonderful reminder of God’s covenant, as shown by the rainbow. The rainbow is a sign of God’s covenant with all generations, and whenever we see one in the sky we should thank God for his love for all people and all living things. We thank him for that covenant, and we can thank him for the new, everlasting covenant of salvation in Christ! (And not only when we see a rainbow!)

 

Prayer

Lord, I thank you for you love for me, for all people, and for all living creatures. I praise you for the beauty of your creation, and for your everlasting covenant. Amen.

Genesis 8: 15 - 22

15 Then God said to Noah, ¹⁶ ‘Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives. ¹⁷ Bring out every kind of living creature that is with you – the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the ground – so they can multiply on the earth and be fruitful and increase in number on it.’

¹⁸ So Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives. ¹⁹ All the animals and all the creatures that move along the ground and all the birds – everything that moves on land – came out of the ark, one kind after another.

²⁰ Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. ²¹ The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: ‘Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.

²² ‘As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest,
cold and heat,
summer and winter,
day and night
will never cease.’

God’s Never-Ending Love.

Does God change his mind? Does he have regrets? You and I often wish we had done things differently, and ‘regret’ taking a particular course of action. It is hard to imagine God having similar ‘regrets’. In Genesis 6: 6 it says, “The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled.” I noted last week that it is likely that the writer of this passage named a human emotion in order to help the readers have an idea of how God felt. God did not ‘regret’ making human beings in the way that you and I might regret some words spoken in haste, or regret a choice. However, the statement that ‘his heart was deeply troubled’ shows that the actions of human beings can greatly grieve him. In Ephesians 4: 30, Paul writes “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God,” – and in the same paragraph talks about unwholesome talk, anger, rage, quarrelling and so on.

In today’s reading it almost looks as if God ‘regrets’ his actions for a second time – this time seeming to regret the flood. God says, “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.” (v.21).

God’s love for human beings is great and unending. Nevertheless, we can hurt God through our actions – by turning from him and going our own way; by ignoring God and by failing to love one another; by sin and selfishness, cruelty and unkindness. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3: 16)

God was saddened and grieved by the rebellion of humanity in the days of Noah, and he brought judgment upon them. And he was saddened and grieved afterwards that it had come to that. Notice, again, in verse 21, that God says, ‘even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood,’ – yet he will never again destroy all living creatures. God forgives all people who come to him in confession and repentance, and he adopts them into his family. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1: 9).

God has promised to always maintain the natural cycles of the world: “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease,” (v. 22), and we can always celebrate his love and goodness!

 

Prayer

Lord, we thank you for your goodness – for you love and mercy and willingness to forgive. We thank you for the promise that you will never again destroy all living things, and for the promise that days, years and seasons will always continue in this beautiful world you have made for us. Amen.

 

Genesis 7: 17 - 8: 14

 

¹⁷ For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth, and as the waters increased they lifted the ark high above the earth. ¹⁸ The waters rose and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the water. ¹⁹ They rose greatly on the earth, and all the high mountains under the entire heavens were covered. ²⁰ The waters rose and covered the mountains to a depth of more than fifteen cubits. ²¹ Every living thing that moved on land perished – birds, livestock, wild animals, all the creatures that swarm over the earth, and all mankind. ²² Everything on dry land that had the breath of life in its nostrils died. ²³ Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out; people and animals and the creatures that move along the ground and the birds were wiped from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark.

²⁴ The waters flooded the earth for a hundred and fifty days.

8¹ But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded. ² Now the springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens had been closed, and the rain had stopped falling from the sky. ³ The water receded steadily from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the water had gone down, ⁴ and on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. ⁵ The waters continued to recede until the tenth month, and on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains became visible.

⁶ After forty days Noah opened a window he had made in the ark ⁷ and sent out a raven, and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth. ⁸ Then he sent out a dove to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground. ⁹ But the dove could find nowhere to perch because there was water over all the surface of the earth; so it returned to Noah in the ark. He reached out his hand and took the dove and brought it back to himself in the ark. ¹⁰ He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark. ¹¹ When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth. ¹² He waited seven more days and sent the dove out again, but this time it did not return to him.

¹³ By the first day of the first month of Noah’s six hundred and first year, the water had dried up from the earth. Noah then removed the covering from the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry. ¹⁴ By the twenty-seventh day of the second month the earth was completely dry.

God Remembers.

Quiz question: How long was Noah in the ark? People sometimes answer ‘40 days’ – but that is only the duration of the rainfall. The flood lasted another 150 days, and Noah waited further time after that until the earth was completely dry. They entered the ark on the seventeenth day of the second month of Noah’s six hundredth year (Gen. 7: 11 - 13), and they left the ark on the twenty-seventh day of the second month of Noah’s six hundred and first year (Gen 8: 14) – one year and ten days in all. So our covid lockdown (seven months, so far) is nothing! Let’s pray that life for us begins to get back to something approaching normal in a shorter time than Noah spent in the ark!

Gen. 8: 1 – “But God remembered Noah…” Had God forgotten Noah? Did God, one day, look down from heaven and say to himself, ‘Who’s that bobbing about down there in a boat? Oh, yes, I remember: it’s Noah!’ No, that is not what is meant by this verse. When God ‘remembered’ Noah, it means he acted on his behalf. But, of course, God’s timing is not our timing. We are often impatient, but God acts at just the right time. So when God acts on our behalf, it might be not quite as soon as we would have hoped, so there is a sense of how God ‘remembers’ us. Later in Genesis, God ‘remembers’ Rachel (Gen. 30: 22) and she bears a son. Similarly, in Exodus 2, when the people of Israel were in slavery in Egypt, God ‘remembered his covenant with Abraham’. In Psalm 25: 7 there is a lovely prayer: “According to your love remember me, for you, Lord, are good.” Again, there is no suggestion that God has forgotten the psalmist. This is a prayer that God will come to his aid and act on his behalf.

At the moment, during the covid-19 pandemic, this is a good prayer that we can pray. ‘Lord, remember us, and bring an end to the spread of the virus. Lord, remember us in our anxiety, in our suffering and uncertainty.’

God comes to us and he takes up our cause – he acts on our behalf. He ‘remembers’ us. And we too must remember than when we are waiting, uncertain, praying with no obvious response, it is not that God has ‘forgotten’ us – it is simply that God’s timing is perfect. We can look back on times in our lives when we prayed and it seemed that heaven was closed. But when God answered our prayer, we know, with hindsight, that it was at just the right time. And we learned from the time of patience beforehand. But that doesn’t mean we can’t pray to God, ‘Lord, remember us!’

 

Prayer

“Show me your ways, Lord, teach me your paths. Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Saviour, and my hope is in you all day long. Remember, Lord, your great mercy and love, for they are from of old. Do not remember the sins of my youth and my rebellious ways; according to your love remember me, for you, Lord, are good.” Amen. (Ps. 25: 4 - 7)

Genesis 7: 1 - 16

 

¹ The Lord then said to Noah, ‘Go into the ark, you and your whole family, because I have found you righteous in this generation. ² Take with you seven pairs of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and one pair of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate, ³ and also seven pairs of every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth. ⁴ Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made.’

⁵ And Noah did all that the Lord commanded him.

⁶ Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters came on the earth. ⁷ And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood. ⁸ Pairs of clean and unclean animals, of birds and of all creatures that move along the ground, ⁹ male and female, came to Noah and entered the ark, as God had commanded Noah. ¹⁰ And after the seven days the floodwaters came on the earth.

¹¹ In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, on the seventeenth day of the second month – on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. ¹² And rain fell on the earth for forty days and forty nights.

¹³ On that very day Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, together with his wife and the wives of his three sons, entered the ark. ¹⁴ They had with them every wild animal according to its kind, all livestock according to their kinds, every creature that moves along the ground according to its kind and every bird according to its kind, everything with wings. ¹⁵ Pairs of all creatures that have the breath of life in them came to Noah and entered the ark. ¹⁶ The animals going in were male and female of every living thing, as God had commanded Noah. Then the Lord shut him in.

The Closed Door of Judgement; The Open Door of Salvation.

Yesterday, in Gen 6: 19 - 20, we saw that God commanded Noah to take two of every kind of animal into the ark. Now, in Gen 7: 2 - 3, the instruction is expanded, and we see that seven pairs of the ‘clean’ animals and seven pairs of the birds were to be brought into the ark. Presumably, this is because some of the animals were to be for food. Of course, it is interesting that the concept of ‘clean’ and ‘unclean’ animals was only introduced through the Law of Moses many centuries later.

This passage describes a shocking moment in history. God has decided that the only option for the sinful state that mankind has reached (in a relatively short time since he created them) is to wipe them all out. All except one family, whom he describes as ‘righteous’. This reminds us that our God, who is a God of love, is also a God of judgement. He calls on all people to follow him – to love him, and love other people; to obey his teaching and to trust in him. When people choose not to do so, they are choosing to turn their backs on God, and choosing to reject him. They are sadly choosing judgement. We need to be righteous before God – and that is not a righteousness of our own: rather it is the righteousness of Christ (see Philippians 3: 9).

The last six words of our reading are incredibly sombre. “Then the Lord shut him in.” Only God could have shut the door of the ark. Because in shutting it, it wasn’t so much that Noah and his family were being shut in, but that everyone else was being shut out. When God shut the door of the ark, it was the final act in the judgement of that generation.

When Christ died on the cross, the door was opened! The door is now open for all to come to God – for all to be saved through him. The way to God is open, and it is open through Christ. No-one comes to the Father except through him (John 14: 6) but “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Joel 2: 32 and Romans 10: 13). We don’t want to be like the people who drowned in the flood – they did not call on the name of the Lord. Similarly, we don’t want other people to be like that either: we all have a responsibility to bring people to that open door and to show them the way of salvation in Christ. People today are needy in so many ways – materially, socially and above all spiritually. It is the responsibility of Christians and the Church to do something about those needs!

 

Prayer

Lord, I thank you for your love and for your mercy. I thank you for the message of salvation, and that all who call on your name will be saved. Please help me to play my part in bringing people to the open door so that they can receive from you. Amen.

Genesis 6: 9 - 22

 

⁹ This is the account of Noah and his family.

Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God. ¹⁰ Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth.

¹¹ Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. ¹² God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. ¹³ So God said to Noah, ‘I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. ¹⁴ So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. ¹⁵ This is how you are to build it: the ark is to be three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide and thirty cubits high. ¹⁶ Make a roof for it, leaving below the roof an opening one cubit high all around. Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks. ¹⁷ I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish. ¹⁸ But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark – you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you. ¹⁹ You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. ²⁰ Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive. ²¹ You are to take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them.’

²² Noah did everything just as God commanded him.

The Wages of Sin.

Can you say this about yourself: ‘[Name] was a righteous person, blameless among the people of the time, and he/she walked faithfully with God’? Maybe we wouldn’t say it about ourselves, but it is something to aim for, that others would say about us. Being righteous means being right with God – and ‘walking faithfully with God’ is the way we live, so that we have an ongoing righteousness. To be ‘blameless among the people’ does not mean sinless, but it means that people cannot point to us as hypocritical in our words and actions, or unkind or harsh or cruel, or rude or crude in our speech or online posts… and so on. Noah was righteous, blameless and faithful, and we too, as followers of Christ, should aim to be people like that.

Noah was very different from everyone else at that time – people who were corrupt and full of violence. Today, some atheist humanists say that it does not require religion to make people moral: humans have a natural understanding of right and wrong, and of morality. I say that innate human moral values come from the fact that we are made in God’s image, and that people can very easily lay aside that morality if they ignore the creator. This description of what people were like in Noah’s day is, I fear, a description of what any society could be like if it turns its back on God.

“The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled.” (Gen. 6: 6). I wonder whether the word ‘regret’ is used as a human emotion to help us as readers understand how God felt. I find it hard to imagine God actually ‘regretted’ he had made human beings (in the way that you or I might regret something); but there is no doubt that God’s heart was ‘deeply troubled’ by what he saw. So he decided to start again – to wipe out humanity with the exception of Noah and his family. He decided to destroy his creation (v. 17). He would flood the world, and only the people and animals in the ark would survive. It’s a harsh picture, and something difficult to imagine God doing to so many people and animals. In Romans 6: 23 it says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” In this story of the people in Noah’s day, we see it graphically played out – the wages of sin is death. But… thankfully, that is not the end of the verse – because it also says that ‘the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.’ It is a gift that you and I have received, and it is a gift that we long to see other people receive. We have a responsibility to tell them!

 

Prayer

Lord, by the power of the Holy Spirit in me, please help me to be righteous, blameless and faithful to you in all I do and say. I thank you for the gift of eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Please help me to share that gift with others. Amen.